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Time & Place: The kitty was always full

A former member of girl band Chill, Liz Bonnin presented Tellybingo and Off The Rails for RTE, Top of the Pops for BBC, RI:SE for Channel 4 and Brat Camp Unseen for E4. She also works for GOAL, and is planning a documentary trip to Calcutta in India

While studying biochemistry in Trinity College from 1991 to 1996, I lived in a first-floor flat at No 55 Pembroke Road in Ballsbridge.

No 55 was a wonderful Georgian house with beautiful high ceilings, ornate cornicing, wooden floors and, of course, marble open fireplaces. I had two — one in the sitting room and one in the bedroom.

The flat was to the back of the house and came with a Parisian-style wrought-iron balcony overlooking the garden. It was way beyond my means but, luckily, I’m half-French. In France there’s a tradition of grandparents helping out with their grandkids’ rent and bills during their college years, a custom that my maternal grandmother kept alive.

The flat had two bedrooms, although I lived on my own most of the time, using the spare room as a study. A friend squatted with me for the best part of a year and my boyfriend